


Birthday Breakfast

by WrathoftheStag (Mwuahna)



Series: Parenthood, Please! [7]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, family life, it's jack's birthday, quotidian life, zimbits future fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 15:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11694996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mwuahna/pseuds/WrathoftheStag
Summary: It’s Jack’s 45th birthday, and it would seem his children and husband are the only present he needs.  A little slice of Zimbits domesticity.





	Birthday Breakfast

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of Jack L. Zimmermann’s birthday, here’s a little birthday ficlet. Happy birthday, Jack! Companion piece to [Bitty’s Birthday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10828551) fic.

Jack opens his eyes slowly, and gives himself a full body stretch as lucidity makes its way in. He can already smell the bacon coming from the kitchen, and can hear the gurgling of the coffee pot. He rubs his eyes and yawns once, a quiet yawn that evolves into a comedic yawp.

45\. He is 45 now. He doesn’t feel old, but his body feels old. All the years of NHL wear and tear catching up to him, still he had a good run. And he was thankful he retired without any major injuries, loved by his team, still appreciated by the fans.

Staring at the ceiling, he blinks repeatedly and listens to the hushed tones and whispers coming from the house. Jack smiles as he hears the exchange between Beep Boop and Bitty. 

“When can we wake him up?”

“Let him sleep, girl. Your poor papa is always up at the crack of dawn and this is one day where he just lets himself sleep in without guilt.”

“Fine. But I’m gonna wake up Fives because he should be helping with breakfast.”

Jack sits up and rotates his neck, hearing a slight crack. 

He can hear Vincent running into the kitchen, Giselle chasing after him, as they tease one another with a kind of sweet tough love only siblings can have.

“If you two pumpkin heads wake up your papa, there’s going to be heck to pay,” Bitty says as the children shriek and run even louder.

Jack gets up and pulls on a t-shirt. He shuffles toward the kitchen and then stage whispers, “Who aren’t we suppose to wake up?”

“Papa! _Bonne fête_!” Beep Boop and Vincent yell as they launch themselves into Jack, enveloping him in a hug.

“Thank you,” he says kissing them both on the head. They smell like bacon and sunshine and the happiness of childhood.

“Aw, honey! I thought you were going to sleep in,” Bitty says as he leans in to give Jack a kiss.

“I was awakened by the siren song of bacon. Besides, I did sleep in. It’s 7:30, Bits.”

“Well, no sir. Let’s get you back to bed,” Bitty says taking his husband by the hand. “BB and Vincent, you two are on breakfast duty, okay? Pull the bacon out of the oven and make sure the quiche doesn’t burn.”

“I gonna make fruit salad,” Vincent announces.

“Sounds good, mister,” Bitty says as he pulls Jack down the hallway and toward the bedroom.

The sunlight streaming in through their bedroom window is warm and makes the bed look extra inviting with its rumpled sheets and pillows askew.

Jack is grinning because he knows exactly what is going on here. Twenty years together has made him well versed in all things Bitty. Jack may have a degree in history, but by now he also has a Ph.D. in Eric Bittle-Zimmermann and he loves it.

Bitty pushes Jack back onto the bed and then kneels down before him. Jack smiles as Bitty looks up at him, all warm eyes and bedhead and says, “Happy birthday, sweet pea.” He then pulls down Jack’s sleep shorts and all Jack can do is exhale and close his eyes.

When they come back to the kitchen nuzzling one another, skin abuzz from their early morning encounter, their children are working and singing an old Beatles song in perfect harmony. 

Vincent tosses his fruit salad in large jadeite bowl, as BB puts out juice glasses and cloth napkins on the table. The oven beeps, Betsy III letting them know the quiche is ready.

“It smells so yummy, daddy,” Vincent says as he watches Bitty place the quiche on a trivet on the table.

“Hold me, love me, hold me, love me. I ain't got nothing but love, girl. Eight days a week,” BB sings softly to herself putting forks and knives out.

“Okay, birthday boy -- have a seat,” Bitty says handing Jack a cup of coffee.

“I’m 45, Bits. Hardly a boy,” Jack says bringing the cup to his lips. The steam warms his face.

“Pssh! You’ll always be my boy,” Bitty says winking at him and sitting down.

The entire Bittle Zimmermann clan sits as a cacophony of joyful chatter breaks out. BB and Vincent discuss the rest of Jack’s special day with plans of driving to Boston to visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History, then dinner with Uncle Poopy and Aunt Lardo. Bitty compliments Vincent’s fruit salad, as BB begins dancing in her chair to the next song on the radio.

And Jack takes it all in. He has this life, this wonderful life -- that if someone would have told him about back when he was 19… well, he’d straight up call them a liar. His children dance and laugh, and know they are loved. They are content in their little family life. They have friends and extended family that they adore, and then there’s Bitty. Eric. It’s always been Eric, and it’ll always been Eric. His Bits. What was life even like before him? Was it even real? Even after all this time, he still can’t believe how lucky he is.

“What?” Bitty asks, as he watches Jack watching them all. A sparkle dances in his eye.

“I’m… I’m just happy,” Jack says softly.

Bitty smiles because he knows what Jack is thinking -- always knows. He’s a part of Jack, so of course he knows.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

Jack smiles and takes a sip of his coffee, swallowing down the prickle that begins to form at the back of his throat.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Ngozi for creating this amazing character!
> 
> Come and say hi over on Tumblr. I'm [Wrath of the Stag](http://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com/).


End file.
